In the autumn of 573 AD, the civil war that divides the Celtic nations in the Post-Roman Britain ends at the battle of Arthuet. The Celtic armies disband and the warriors return to their homes, but the losses to the combined Celtic forces are so great that the immigrants from Germania - the Angles who settled along the North Sea, boldly send raiding parties into the Celtic homelands. Fingal, a Celtic mercenary soldier, is returning home to his Roman wife, Lillian, who lives with his people of Caledon. Weighed down by his travel bags full of the treasures of war, he rescues a slave, Jessica, from her Angle captors, to become his servant to carry his valuables homeward